Date: 2009-07-06 11:45 Subject: Little boy fads Security: Public

Not content with being a total Star Wars "geek" (his term), Miles has now discovered:

Avatar, the Last Airbender

Bakugan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles


At least the Turtles are several years old, so I might actually be able to get some action figures for cheap at garage sales.

Date: 2009-04-02 12:53 Subject: More YA fantasy Security: Public Mood: satisfied

Two more new titles I have just read and can recommend:

The Magic Thief
by Sarah Prineas
sarah_prineas

The Last Knight
by Hilari Bell
Author's website here

Both are first volumes in projected trilogies. Light, fast reads, lots of fun. Enjoy.

Date: 2009-03-12 22:18 Subject: Flooding Security: Public Mood: nervous

Fort Wayne is the City of Floods this spring. All three rivers are above flood stage and two have not yet crested. The Army Corps of Engineers has done a lot of work here in the last 20 years, so much of the flooding is in parks and agricultural land. But there is still a neighborhood in Waynedale down by the Fairfield Ditch where the houses are being flooded. And there are lots of wet basements all over town...

Thanks to Fort Wayne's combined sewer system, the older parts of the city have the worst time in floods like this, because the storm sewers flow into the sanitary sewers, then the back up into streets and people's basements, then...yuck.

Fortunately, we have no basement; and though we are close to the St. Joseph river, we are on high ground. But our main route through downtown to school is flooded, and I'm worried that our alternate route will be flooded tomorrow morning. We may have to try a third route...

For those of you who know Fort Wayne, our main route on Clinton St. is flooded between Spy Run Creek and Headwaters Park. The Maumee is expected to keep rising tomorrow which has me worried about Anthony Blvd. south of Lake Ave. We may have to see if we can get through on Wells St.

Date: 2009-03-11 21:27 Subject: Miles is hard on his clothes Security: Public Mood: aggravated

Arrgghh! I have had to put iron on patches in the knees, legs, and laps* of several of Miles's school pants recently. I also need to mend a hole in his white dress uniform shirt (which is quite new).

This is, unfortunately, normal wear and tear for a boy his age.

Unfortunately, I'm also trying to figure out how to mend his school tie. About half an inch of the tip is missing and the edge is ragged. So far, he's given me two different stories: first, that he chewed the end off (and it certainly looks like it), second that the point was poking him and he cut it off (there's that school scissors again!)

I told him he owes me for the tie and that it will come out of his allowance. He gets an allowance of $3 a week and he has to buy his own books at Borders with it.

Now he's accusing me of being a slave owner and treating him like a slave. This is his most recent variation on "you're the meanest mom in the world." His class has been studying Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad in school, and he's fascinated by it. But now, anytime he thinks I'm being unfair, he wails that I'm treating him like a slave.

Must be rough to be seven. ; (


*Laps, you ask? He sticks his school scissors in his belt loop like he's holstering a pistol, then forgets it's there. Then he's surprised when they cut holes in his pants.

Date: 2009-02-04 17:25 Subject: Young adult fiction faves Security: Public Mood: busy

With a shout out to my reader friends (both youth and adult), here are some recent YA series I have loved:

Hilary McKay
Casson Family series:
1 - Saffy's Angel
2 - Indigo's Star
3 - Permanent Rose
4 - Caddy Ever After
5 - Forever Rose
The Casson family is always in complete chaos and uproar, but they always stand by each other and manage to muddle through. Imagine the Weasley family as Muggles and mostly girls.

John Flanagan
The Ranger's Apprentice series
1 - The Ruins of Gorlan
2 - The Burning Bridge
3 - The Icebound Land
4 - The Battle for Skandia
5 - The Sorcerer of the North
6 - The Siege of Macindaw [forthcoming 8/09]
If you like Harry Potter and LOTR, give these a try. Nothing terribly original, but a whole lotta fun to read.

Stuart Hill
Icemark Chronicles
1 - The Cry of the Icemark
2 - Blade of Fire
3 - Last Battle of the Icemark [forthcoming 4/09]
Epic fantasy on a ya scale. Includes talking leopards.

L.A. Meyer
Bloody Jack adventures
1 - Bloody Jack
2 - Curse of the Blue Tattoo
3 - Under The Jolly Roger
4 - In the Belly of the Bloodhound
5 - Mississippi Jack
6 - My Bonny Light Horseman
Jacky Faber is a girl with some *serious* forward momentum. After years as a London street rat, she joins the British Royal Navy as a ship's "boy." Even after her gender is discovered, she proceeds to make friends, enemies, and a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. She's a swashbuckling heroine with a zest for life who always lands on her feet. She's a hoot and a half, and I *highly* recommend her adventures to anyone who likes adventure or historical fiction.

Anybody else out there who likes these?

Date: 2009-02-02 22:23 Subject: Songs for the iPod Security: Public Mood: amused

Anybody who enjoys word play oughta check out the song "Crazy ABCs" on the new album "Snacktime" by the Barenaked Ladies. "Everybody knows that A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for cat. I wanted to do something different." So according to the Ladies, A is for aisle, B is for bderyllium (some kind of resin gum), etc. It's highly amusing.

And just wait till Miles finds out the name of the band. (Snigger smirk giggle) Right now it's just "that crazy alphabet song."

Date: 2009-01-10 11:19 Subject: Miles the engineer Security: Public Mood: amused

With all the boxes from Christmas at his disposal, Miles has built a series of cardboard spaceships. First there was the small space ship.





Later there was briefly a Large spaceship which had to be stored in an outside hangar because the boxes (obtained from an obliging neighbor) reeked of cigarette smoke.

Then came the Boat Spaceship.





Note that Pilot Miles has grabbed one of Mama's Star Wars comics. He wants to do everything in the boat including practice his recorder, do his homework, and eat his breakfast.

Date: 2008-09-16 17:18 Subject: Miles the boat pilot Security: Public

Miles makes friends wherever he goes. On a riverboat dinner cruise on the Ottawa River, he ended up on the bridge chatting up the pilot and helping steer the boat.

Date: 2008-09-16 16:52 Subject: Making the political sausage Security: Public

Usually I am bored silly with politics. But this has been a Very Interesting Year.

The following columnists say it much better than I can. Obama and Clinton supporters, feel free to ignore these because I'm sure they (and I) will not change your minds. McCain and Palin supporters, read on:

Kathleen Parker
http://townhall.com/columnists/KathleenParker/2008/09/03/palin_the_impaled
"Would anyone ever ask whether a male candidate was qualified for office because his daughter was pregnant?

Some also have questioned whether Palin, whose son Trig has Down syndrome, can be both a mother and a vice president? These questions aren't coming from the right -- so often accused of wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen -- but from the left.

Did someone switch the Kool-Aid?"


Jonah Goldberg
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmE3OTg2ODQzZDYwNjVhYzQxNmE0ZGU5OWVjOWFmMzg=
"Barack Obama, a famous fan of pickup basketball, must recognize his plight: It’s two on one now. John McCain drafted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the star point guard from the Wasilla Warriors, to double-team Obama."
and
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjE4ZTcxZjQ5YjBiYzFlMGJlMzk5YjNjOTkyZWQyMTg=
Here he is in his usual frothing-at-the-mouth and over-the-top style, but I concur with his point in general:
"It works like this: If you don’t agree with feminist scolds, you’re not a real woman, even if you’re a very feminine working mom. But even if you’re an actual man — never mind a childless feminist who looks like a Bulgarian weightlifter in drag — you’re a “real woman” solely because you nod your head like a windup clapping monkey every time you read the latest editorial in Ms. Recall how they christened Bill Clinton the “first female president,” too."


Charles Krauthammer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102840.html
"The Democrats are in a panic. In a presidential race that is impossible to lose, they are behind.... Obama's meteoric rise was based not on issues -- there was not a dime's worth of difference between him and Hillary on issues -- but on narrative, on eloquence, on charisma."

Linda Chavez
http://www.ceousa.org/content/view/616/68/
"But do Fowler and others on the left really favor a woman's right to choose -- or do they only support women who make the same choices they would in the same circumstances? "

We now return you to your regularly scheduled pictures of Miles, already in progress.